Vessel Hunters
by KamalaC
Summary: Sequel to Little One. Now that Lucifer and Castiel are gone, Nick and Jimmy find themselves at a loose end. So they decide to take up hunting. When they get visions of their possessors in the Cage, things start to get worrying again.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Sequel to Little One. After Castiel dragged Lucifer into the pit, Jimmy and Nick decided to stick together. They remembered a lot of their time possessed, and figured that they could put that knowledge to good use. So they became hunters. But when they start having shared visions of Lucifer and Castiel in the Cage, they realise that things are about to heat up again, especially with both demons and angels wanting them dead for their part in averting the Apocalypse.

A/N: Blame Speedfanatic, she wanted to know what happened next. Bitch. I have no idea how long this will be. First chapter covers the general situation, up to their decision to change lifestyles.

Pairings: Nick/Jimmy, memories/visions of Lucifer/Castiel, anything else undecided.

Warnings (this chapter): Sexual references.

-VH-

Jimmy was laughing.

Nick thought it one of the most beautiful things he'd seen. They were sitting in front of the fire in Nick's living room, getting to know each other as slightly-not-normal humans, and Nick knew that he was in trouble.

The two men had been having sex ever since their angelic possessors had left, finding that it was one of the few familiar, comforting actions that had available to them. Their bodies knew and reacted to each other with little effort, and while neither would have considered themselves gay before, now they were willing to take comfort from each other. It had been agreed early on that this wasn't a relationship, and that should the opportunity present itself, they would find other partners.

Unfortunately, Jimmy felt that to sleep with anyone else would mean he was being unfaithful to his wife Amelia, even if he couldn't go back to her. So while he was happy to look at other women on the occasions they ventured into town, he never made a move on them.

As for Nick…

Nick's family were dead. He'd had time to grieve and come to terms with it whilst Lucifer had been possessing him. And now, he spent his days constantly in the presence of a very attractive man, who welcomed him in his bed, and who had been through a similar ordeal.

In other words, Nick was falling in love with the man sitting next to him, and it terrified him. If Jimmy ever found out how deep Nick's feelings ran, he was sure the other would be gone in a heartbeat.

So he kept his mouth shut, smiling painfully as he watched Jimmy laugh, and knew that he was completely screwed.

-VH-

Jimmy smiled as he felt Nick's arms wrap around him. He was currently fixing dinner for them, something that always made Nick smile.

While their life together wasn't perfect, Jimmy thought they were doing okay. Both men still suffered nightmares from their time as meat-suits, and found that they were the only ones who could comfort each other, since no one else really knew what they had gone through. And they now knew about the supernatural world, which added to their general distrust of everyone else.

One upside to their situation was that the both remembered a lot of Castiel and Lucifer's knowledge, which meant that Nick's house was fully warded in Enochian runes, making it possibly the safest place on Earth.

The other benefit was the sex. They both knew that neither would turn down the other, and both had healthy sex drives. As Nick was currently proving, nipping at the back of Jimmy's neck and massaging his hips.

"Hmm…" Jimmy hummed his approval. "You're in a good mood."

"Yep. Heard back from my old boss. I can start work again in two weeks."

Jimmy felt his heart sink a little at that, but turned in Nick's grasp and smiled at him anyway.

"That's great. You've missed working, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Nick leaned down and kissed Jimmy, then lifted the shorter man so he was sitting on the counter, legs wrapped loosely around Nick's waist. "I always did enjoy working with my hand."

"I enjoy you working with your hands too," Jimmy grinned, pushing his fears to one side. If it made Nick happy, he'd try to support him. And wouldn't think about how odd that statement sounded in his mind.

"You really do have a filthy mind," Nick grinned. "I like it."

"Of course you do." Jimmy leaned back a little, grabbing a bottle of olive oil from the counter and waggling his eyebrows.

Nick laughed and nodded, moving to slip out of his shirt, when the doorbell rang. He let out a groan, then shook his head.

"Fuck 'em," he muttered and leaned towards Jimmy again.

"I'd rather fuck you," Jimmy commented glibly, earning another annoyed groan from his companion.

The doorbell rang again, and Jimmy glared in its direction.

"Fuck off!" He shouted. "We're not home!"

"Really convincing, Babe," Nick laughed, pulling away. He took a moment to get himself back under control before heading to the door. Opening it, he recognised one of his old co-workers, Matt.

"Hey Nick," the man greeted him. "Heard you were coming back, thought I'd call in and catch up, grab a beer."

"Sure thing," Nick stepped to one side. Something was screaming at him that this wasn't really Matt, so he made sure to keep out of arm's reach.

"So, you've been gone–" Matt seemed to walk into an invisible wall, and Nick nodded. Just as he'd thought. 'Matt' turned to look at him, wide eyed, and Nick raised his own gaze to the ceiling – where Jimmy had painted a complex Devil's Trap, identical to the one Castiel had used to keep Alistair powerless.

"You didn't think we were helpless, did you?" Jimmy called from his position, leaning agains the door frame. 'Matt' glared at him, eyes filling black.

"Doesn't matter," the demon growled. "We know where you are now, and we won't stop coming until we have you again."

"Interesting," Nick raised an eyebrow. "Bet you didn't count on this."

With that, both men started chanting the most powerful exorcism they knew.

-VH-

"We should probably leave," Jimmy commented as the two ate later. "We're just endangering your friends by staying."

"I know," Nick sighed, pushing the stir-fry around more than he ate it. "I thought we could make this work, with all our defences here. But if they know where we are…"

"Yeah." There was silence for a few minutes. "Do you think it's odd, how much knowledge we've retained? I'm pretty sure that you, at least, should have been left a drooling idiot from how powerful Lucifer was."

"It's weird," Nick nodded. "Nothing we can do though, except use the knowledge to protect ourselves."

Jimmy nodded in return, thinking, then dropped his fork as his eyes widened.

"That's it!"

"What's what?" Nick blinked.

"We can use our knowledge to help people! We should become hunters!"

"Hunters." Nick deadpanned. "You want to search out demons to kill them?"

"Yeah," Jimmy was looking excited about it, and Nick knew that he was going to cave. He'd do anything to keep that light alive in his beloved's eyes. "And not just demons. Everything else as well! We still have the knowledge, and… well…" he looked down, then rested his hand on the table, palm-up as he concentrated for a moment. Nick wasn't sure what was going to happen, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Castiel's sword appeared in Jimmy's hand.

"What the Hell?" Nick breathed.

"I dunno," Jimmy shrugged, turning the sword over thoughtfully. "But I can still do a few of the things Castiel could. Remembering Enochian's just a small part of it."

Nick considered, then held out his own hand, calling Lucifer's blade forth. He was shocked when it worked, and he hefted the blade.

"These can kill pretty much anything," Nick contemplated, earning a grin from Jimmy.

"So? What do you say?"

"I guess… the world could do with a few more hunters. We can leave once I sell the house – it'll give us money to live on for a while."

Jimmy grinned, and banished his sword with a thought. He then climbed up onto the table and crawled across it, leaning in to kiss Nick in thanks.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So Jimmy has become a lot like Misha Collins, in that he's completely fucking insane. But living through everything he did, I think we can let Jimmy be a little nuttier than he was in 'The Rapture'.

Warnings: Nightmares and a hyperactive Jimmy.

-VH-

_There were grey wings in front of him. He reached out, gripping hard, causing Castiel to whimper in pain beneath him._

"_Please, no more," the little angel begged. "You're hurting me."_

"_I know," he grinned, and continued to tear at the feathers._

-VH-

Nick awoke suddenly, panting. He lay still for several minutes, trying to ignore the sudden desire to see Jimmy, to make sure he was all right.

He heard movement then, and rose to follow the sound of his housemate retching into the toilet.

"Hey," he called softly from the doorway. They'd learned early on that approaching each other straight after a nightmare wasn't a good idea – Jimmy often had trouble distinguishing between Nick and Lucifer for the first couple of minutes.

"Hey," Jimmy muttered once his stomach was under control. "Man, I hate those dreams."

"I had one too," Nick commented, a little surprised. "Did it… was it familiar for you? A memory?"

"Dunno," Jimmy flushed the toilet and went to brush his teeth. "Mostly it was pain in my… in Castiel's wings."

A chill ran through Nick at that. If they were having shared dreams… nothing good could come of that.

"Anyway," Jimmy continued, oblivious to Nick's thoughts as he usually was. "Should we bother trying to sleep again, or should we just head out?"

"Head out, I think," Nick turned to gather his things. "Doubt we'd get much more sleep tonight."

Jimmy made a non-committal noise as his finished brushing the taste away, then packed up their toiletries.

Nick had gotten a decent price for the house and its contents, so they'd last a while before having to resort to the Winchesters' methods of earning money. Their first stop would be Bobby's, where they'd get advice on whether to get a new car and the hunter lifestyle in general.

Grabbing his bag, Jimmy slid down the bannister and grinned at the look Nick sent him.

"What?" He shrugged, shouldering the bag again. "It's easier than walking."

"You're just easy," Nick muttered, trying not to laugh at Jimmy's mock-scandalised look.

-VH-

They took their time heading to Bobby's junkyard, partly to get used to living on the road and partly to think of what they were going to say to the grizzled hunter when they got there.

Jimmy was all for showing up on the doorstep and employing what he called 'the power of the puppy-dog eyes' to make him take them in. Nick felt that a phone call beforehand might go down better, and after some consideration, Jimmy agreed. He still had Bobby's number in his cell, but agreed to let Nick do the talking. His voice was less likely to give Bobby a heart attack, and he was less likely to say something offensive.

"Whaddaya want?" Bobby's gruff voice came down the line, making Nick smile.

"Mr Singer, my name is Nick Irwin. We met a couple of months ago."

"…After you got possessed by the devil himself?"

"That would be me," Nick turned from where Jimmy was making grabbing motions at the phone. "Jimmy Novak's with me, we've had a little trouble readjusting to human life."

"Demons?"

"Yeah… Jimmy, stop that! Behave yourself. Sorry, he's a little… excited at the moment. Look, we're near Sioux Falls, is it okay if we stop by?"

"Sure," Bobby sounded doubtful, but he gave permission anyway. "Jimmy remember where I am?"

"Apparently. But if we're not there by nightfall, try calling Castiel's cell – we've either been abducted, or Jimmy's gotten us hopelessly lost."

As they hung up, Bobby could hear Nick reprimanding Jimmy – "That's the last time you're having Red Bull!" – and he let out a chuckle.

"What was that?" Sam asked, curious. Not much made Bobby laugh.

"A conversation between two ex-vessels." Bobby watched the look that passed between Sam and Dean at that. "Nick and Jimmy are on their way over."

"Wait wait wait," Dean held up a hand. "Nick as in the guy who used to be Lucifer's meat suit?"

"That's the bunny."

"And Jimmy… Castiel's Jimmy?"

"Apparently."

"Did they say why?" Sam blinked, confused.

"Demon trouble. Sounds like they got out okay, but we'll test 'em when they get here anyway."

-VH-

Sam opened the door, holy water at the ready, only to have Jimmy jump into his arms.

"Sammy!" The shorter man grinned, hugging him tight. He then spotted Dean and ran to him –passing harmlessly under the Devil's Trap to do so. "Deany!"

"What the Hell?" Dean looked wide-eyed at his brother, who also looked stunned.

"I'll say it again," Nick grinned wryly as he stepped inside. "No more Red Bull. Ever."

"Aw, Nick, don't be mean!" Jimmy pouted.

"Jimmy," Nick snagged the flask of holy water from Sam and drank from it before continuing. "You were singing rude songs in Enochian." That drew sharp glances from the hunters in the room. "I nearly had to tie you to the seat to get you to stay still. No more Red Bull."

"Fine," Jimmy kicked at the floor, something made difficult by the fact that he was still clinging to Dean.

"Hey dude," Dean patted him on the head, clearly uncomfortable. "You wanna… let go? Maybe?"

"Nope," Jimmy was pouting at Nick again, who sighed and covered his eyes with one hand.

"Can we shove him in your panic room until he calms down? Please?"

"How 'bout you explain what you're doing here?" Bobby countered. Nick opened his mouth to do so, but was beaten by Jimmy.

"We're gonna be hunters! Since we can't stay in one place anyway thanks to demons wanting to use one or both of us to get Lucifer back, and we remember a whole heap of stuff from being possessed. Like this!" And he summoned Castiel's blade, which made the hunters jump back.

Nick smirked at that, then summoned Lucifer's as the hunters turned to him.

"I think that since Lucifer was in the process of leaving me, not everything was dragged down. He's not in me anymore, but I can still do some of the things he could."

"Such as?" Bobby wasn't pleased with this news, but Nick figured that telling them now would be better than them finding out later.

"We remember Enochian," Jimmy volunteered, then the two men banished their weapons again, which soothed the hunters a little. "And warding. The demon who came after us, we trapped in a Devil's Trap and exorcised it."

"We're both getting better at other things," Nick continued. "Moving through shadows only works for short distances – from one side of a room to another, for example. And we both remember pretty much everything that happened while we were meat suits."

"It wasn't fun," Jimmy snuggled into Dean, who looked uncomfortable again.

"You're… really touchy-feely, aren't you?" He commented.

"Not usually," Nick shrugged. "At least, not with many people. With me, yes… so maybe he'll be affectionate towards the three of you as well. After all, he had more pleasant memories with you."

"Dean took me to a brothel!" Came the delighted response, to which everyone other than Dean sighed.

"Of course he did," Nick nodded. "Now, think you can sleep for a bit? Please?"

"No!" Jimmy glared. Before anyone could move, Nick got close enough to press two fingers to his forehead, causing the short man to slump in Dean's grasp. "Not fair," he whispered before falling asleep.

"What?" Nick took in the shocked looks of the others. "It was that or run him through. You haven't been trapped in a car with him for the last two hours."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Help… I have a plot-bunny for a Mistakes sequel…

-MWM-

Lucifer was tearing him apart. At least, that's what it felt like. Bites, scratches, kicks and punches rained down on his skin. It was all he could do to curl up in a ball, trying to protect himself as much as he could while trapped like this. His wings curled around him, the only protection he had here, and he felt tears flowing down his cheeks as his feathers were torn out in handfuls.

-VH-

Jimmy awoke with a start, breathing heavily. Nick looked down at him from where he'd just awoken, sitting on the couch with Jimmy's head in his lap, and he also looked pale and shaken.

"Another nightmare?" Nick asked, though it was more of a comment.

"Yeah. And my head hurts like a bitch. Did you have to send me to sleep?"

"I thought it would be best for your continued survival," came the answer. "At least you were snuggled up to Dean, so he caught you." Nick tried to keep the jealousy out of his voice at that. It seemed to work, since Jimmy reacted more to the statement than the tone, burying his face in his hands.

"Why did you let me hug them? I'm surprised Dean didn't shoot me."

"Hence, I put you to sleep. If I didn't know you'd only had an energy drink, I would've thought you were drunk."

"They never affected me that much before," Jimmy said defensively. "If I'd known, I'd have stuck to a coke."

"Well, ready to face them again?"

"If I must," Jimmy sighed and allowed Nick to stand and pull him off the couch, only to see that the Winchesters and Bobby were sitting in the kitchen, clearly able to hear their conversation.

"So…" Jimmy tried grinning at them. "Anyone gonna shoot me?"

"Only if you hug me again," Dean muttered. Sam promptly sent him a dirty look, then returned Jimmy's smile with a more assured one.

"So hunters, huh?" He asked, and Jimmy nodded.

"We're sitting targets if we stay in one place, even with our remembered knowledge. I know I can't go back to Amelia and Claire anyway, and with the swords, we can kill most creatures as long as we can find them. So why not go hunting?"

"What about you, Nick?" Sam turned to the man leaning against the wall, keeping himself separate from the rest. "Do you have anyone you're leaving behind?"

"Just some friends, who knew I was leaving again this time so no one will be looking for me. Sold my house to cover expenses for a while."

"No family?" Sam pushed. Nick knew why he was doing it – he'd said 'yes' to the devil, had given him the opportunity to hunt Sam down. He was an unknown element, especially with his leftover abilities, and since they seemed to be protective of Jimmy… Nick was going to have to share a few painful memories.

"My wife and three-month-old son were murdered about a week before Lucifer started appearing in my dreams." He saw the sudden comprehension from Sam and Dean – after all, their father had taken a few drastic steps when his wife was killed. "He kept screwing with my head, making me hear my son crying, my wife moving about the house. It got to be too much, and I let him have my body if he'd find and punish the bastard who killed my family." He gave a mirthless laugh. "He actually kept that promise."

"So…" Sam swallowed hard. "If we don't touch the people you care about, you don't try destroying the world?"

"Pretty much," Nick shrugged. He didn't feel the need to tell them that Jimmy was the only person he cared about any more.

-VH-

"Vampires."

"Stab 'em with our swords!"

"Jimmy…"

"Fine, cut off their head. The whole sunlight, garlic, and stakes are all rubbish thought up by horror writers. And they don't sparkle."

"Better." Nick flipped through the book he was holding again, then looked down at his friend. While Nick was sitting normally on the couch, Jimmy was laying with his legs up and over the back of it, his back on the seat with his head and shoulders hanging off and staring out at the room. They were reviewing the different ways of killing various monsters, just in case their swords didn't work, or they couldn't get to their weapons for some reason.

At least, Nick was reviewing the different ways, and learning all sorts of things. Jimmy was being difficult.

Dean watched from the doorway, and tried to contain his laughter. Jimmy was a lot different this time around, much more laid back and easy going. Also completely nuts. Dean was fairly sure that, somewhere along the line, Jimmy had actually gone insane. But Nick seemed to be fairly good at grounding him, which was just weird. Seeing the man they'd come to think of as Lucifer sitting in Bobby's library was more than a little unsettling. And seeing him and Jimmy laughing together was even stranger.

He'd watched that morning as the two had gotten their breakfasts, moving around the kitchen with a perfect awareness of where the other was at all times, and passing things back and forth without a word. It was much like the bond he and Sam were regaining, except that this had happened over the course of a few months instead of a lifetime. Dean was a lot less worried about them hunting together now that he'd seen the way they moved together.

"Make it eat its own cooking!"

"Jimmy, that's not how you kill a ghoul."

"Should be."

Of course, he'd feel a lot better about it if Jimmy could take it seriously for five minutes.

-VH-

"Fuck, Jimmy!" Nick tried to keep his voice down, but it was difficult with the way Jimmy was licking at his cock, coaxing it to hardness. "What…"

"I'm bored," Jimmy whispered against his skin, nuzzling at Nick's hip.

"So you decided–"

"To wake you up, yes." With that, Jimmy took the head of Nick's cock in his mouth, gently sucking as he moved forwards. Trying to stifle his groan, Nick bit his own hand. They were still at Bobby's for fuck's sake, the old man was asleep in the next room!

So of course, Jimmy just kept up his ministrations, tracing letters against the underside of Nick's erection as he massaged the hips beneath his hands.

"Jimmy, I swear…" Nick's brain short-circuited as Jimmy slid forwards even more, managing to relax his throat enough that he was able to take the whole of Nick's cock in his mouth and throat.

Then he started humming 'Highway to Hell', and Nick couldn't control himself any more. He grabbed the back of Jimmy's head and started thrusting his hips up, body remembering the last time this happened. It didn't take long for Nick to tug Jimmy's head back, and with one last look at those cheeky blue eyes, he was coming in Jimmy's mouth.

Nick fell back on the bed, taken aback for a minute. He felt the bed dip as Jimmy climbed up it, throwing an arm over Nick's chest and curling into his side. Nick reached his hand up to card it through his partner's hair, thinking.

"You picked that up from Cas, didn't you?" Nick finally asked, remembering.

"Not really," Jimmy was speaking quietly, throat most likely sore from his endeavours. "When we did that to Lucifer… it was me in charge."

"…What?" The implications in that statement made Nick's blood run cold.

"Castiel tried to protect me, but there were times when he just couldn't take any more," Jimmy confirmed. "So he'd fade into the background, and I'd take control of my body again. Pretty much any time that we initiated something… it was me, not Cas."

"Why would you do that?" Nick moved so that he was holding Jimmy in his arms. Going by this information, Jimmy had apparently done several things with Lucifer voluntarily.

"Because it kept him happy," Jimmy shrugged. "And if I did those things, with Castiel watching from inside my head, he was then able to do it himself later. You must have felt it… whenever we initiated something new, Lucifer was pleased and would go easy on us for a while. Usually just long enough for Cas to get his defences back up, but still…"

"I'm sorry," Nick whispered. "I'm so sorry that I let him treat you like that."

"I know," Jimmy nodded, closing his eyes again. "You make up for it every time we have sex without me bleeding for days afterwards."

Unknown to them, Sam stood behind the door, able to hear every word. He'd come up to tell them that he and Dean were leaving on a hunt, only to hear the end of Jimmy's wake-up call to Nick. It left Sam hard in his pants, and though the following conversation was enlightening, he couldn't get the memory of Lucifer touching Castiel in front of him out of his head.

Swallowing hard, he turned and left, figuring he'd just tell Dean that the other men were still asleep. No way could he walk into the room in his current condition. Though they hadn't said anything about being lovers, so maybe it was just casual sex between the men.

If so, then the next time they met up, Sam was determined that he'd have Jimmy in his own bed.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Something short and vaguely amusing (hopefully) to show I'm not dead yet.

…So, does anyone know where I'm going with this? I can't remember any of the ideas I had.

-VH-

"Well that went well," Nick commented as he and Jimmy leaned back against a wall.

"Hey, neither of us got killed and the ghost is gone," Jimmy pointed out. "I'd say that's a success."

"Yes, but you're going to be limping for a week or so."

"Like that's any different from usual."

Nick rolled his eyes and slung an arm around Jimmy's shoulders, pulling him close for a moment. It was all he allowed himself, when what he really wanted was to drag Jimmy somewhere safe, undress him and reassure himself that his companion wasn't seriously injured. Unfortunately, that fell under the 'too close to affection' subheading of interactions. So a quick squeeze it was.

They waited until the bones were completely gone, burnt up into ash, before scraping up the remains into a small container. The corpse had been buried under a pile of rubble during an earthquake, the only body to not be recovered, and the ghost had subsequently been interfering in the construction of a new building on the site. Since the girl didn't have a grave, they were going to bury her themselves.

"So, got any ideas for where to take her?" Nick asked as Jimmy carefully sealed the container. He had the feeling that a cleaned-out margarine tub wasn't the most dignified of final resting places, but it was all they had at the moment.

"There's a cemetery a few minutes away," Jimmy offered. "Her brother was killed in the same building collapse, he's buried there. They'd like to be together, I think."

-VH-

"Shapeshifters suck."

Nick let out a grin as he and Jimmy watched the body burn, and finished wrapping a bandage around Jimmy's hand. Hunting was about as glamorous and easy as Nick had imagined – as in, not at all – but Jimmy seemed disappointed by the way their lives were turning out. Sometimes Jimmy seemed so child-like in his innocence that Nick almost forgot that he'd been through so much.

Almost being the key word. He never quite forgot what it was like to hold the other man down and take, even if neither of them were in complete control at the time.

"So, what did we learn from this?" Nick commented lightly.

"That shapeshifters suck." Jimmy continued to pout at the burning body. Nick couldn't help himself and leaned forward to nip at Jimmy's mouth.

Jimmy let out a startled noise, but happily nipped back. When they separated, he looked decidedly more cheerful.

"Also learned that burning bodies turns you on," he didn't appear entirely put out by the discovery.

"You're impossible. I was referring to the fact that shapeshifters are faster than we expected."

"Oh yeah, that."

-VH-

"Y'know, I'm pretty sure most hunters don't do the debrief standing around a burning body," Jimmy pointed out as he leaned against Nick, nursing his ribs.

"Probably not," Nick agreed. "I guess we're just odd." He wiped off Lucifer's blade and kept an eye out for unwanted company.

"I mean, it's hardly the most inconspicuous place to stand around chatting. And what are we meant to do if someone does come across us?"

"Lie like our livelihoods depend on it."

"Gotcha."

They waited until the werewolf's body was completely consumed before they scraped the ashes together to take to the graveyard. Rather, Nick did the collecting while Jimmy tried not to breathe too deeply – he was fairly sure that he'd at least cracked a rib or two in the scuffle.

Once the salted ashes were buried, Nick insisted on taking Jimmy to the hospital to get his ribs checked. As much as he tried to keep Jimmy safe on hunts, the shorter man had a habit of injuring himself in one way or another. Nick had the strangest feeling that it might have been subconsciously intentional.


End file.
